Thursday, March 24, 2005

The #1 trait of a millionarie is....? by LesGee

The #1 trait of a millionarie is....? by LesGee

If you understand this you too can have more money than you know what to do with.
It’s a two part answer.

Just one man’s bias opinion obviously. So why am I qualified to even write on the subject?
Done about 1000 tax returns and got to see lots of people’s finances.
Done about 200 mortgage loans by referrals only. I do not work for the general public hence my clientele allows me to work closely with them in a more financial planning mode. I get to see these people over many years. My average client I have refied about 5 times.
Real estate ACTIVE investor for 5 yrs.
Real estate PASSIVE investor for 5 yrs.

I recently been hearing people write,
“I have little money but want to get into real estate.”
“Can no money down investing work?”
“I have $2000 in credit card debt, should I pay off the debt first or
invest?”
“Should I get an equity line to invest?”

Yes, these are interesting topics however there is a more important fundamental issue that should not be overlooked. I can answer these questions but WHAT FOR? So they can make more money and still have no money later on? You see I know lots of people making 6 figures and still are broke. Off the top of my head I know of a couple that make $150,000/yr and are about $50,000 in credit card debt. So they make more money….letting them buy bigger toys. Big deal is all I can say.

My friend use to have a successful financial planning practice. He had one client deciding on bankruptcy yet he was making $1,000,000/yr as a successful doctor. He was spending over that each yr. They were startled they had to stop the practice of wearing clothes only once, buying the newest car, belonging to 3 country clubs. To them this was very necessary. What would the Jones think?

It is appalling, yet crystal clear when I see my close friends making good money, yet constantly buying toys! Digital camera, big screen TVs, cellular phones, video camera, and vacations…. I know they are going to be broke when they need the money later in life. Nobody continues to make the same. Things change. Two incomes before one. Medical problems, having kids, parents need help, … They just don’t have the mindset of a millionaire and live like a spoiled child “in the moment.”

I personally never made more than $30,000/yr in a job. (My last job was over a decade ago) Remember making $15,000 my first year out of college while my peers were making $30,000+. It didn’t matter, because I know that the number one trait of success is…..SAVING. That first yr by the way I save $7500. Every cent was watch closely down to buying soda at the vending machine. This changed to buying in bulk to bring it in. Then it changed to drinking water.

So the number one trait of making it I fully believe is SAVING! If you don’t learn to live below your means, then you are doomed to just have bigger toys, until your income goes down, and you lose it all. It is human nature to live at or above your current standard of living. So the income goes down, the person continues to live how they live as the savings is eroded. Now what?

Who knows how long before you can no longer make what you make? Be it medical problems for you or your love ones. Be it maternity for your wife. Be it downsizing or just feed up with your work. So from day one I use to say, do I want to be doing this when I’m 70 yrs old? If not, I’d better be saving like the dickens.

Now the second part of the equation. Learning to INVEST. Now with seed money, I can learn to invest and have those little employees of mine, called “CASH” work 24/7. They don’t complain and they continue to make money day in and day out. They make more money then I ever did. Man they are good workers.

Does a good successful farmer continue to eat his entire crop each year? That’s what most Americans do with their money. If you have a good year, save the darn stuff. Then learn to invest.

Think of storing for a 7-yr drought.

MOST millionaires I know make it by SAVING and basic boring INVESTING. Read the book, “The millionaire next door” and “The millionaire mind”. Also Robert Kiyosaki says the same thing. You can be a millionaire by simply saving and investing. Being an “E” or and “S” and learning to “I”.

Also read “the richest man in Babylon”. Human nature is such that Expenses = Income. Unless you learn to control the urge to splurge, you are doomed to a lousy retirement.

Yes, there are the exception of winning the lottery, but those folks will be broke in 5 yrs. Also what about the successful businessman. All I can say is I’m a statistician by education. I play the odds. And most of the folks I see that make it learn to SAVE.

Real estate investing is just one vehicle that helps the INVESTING side of the equation. But if you got no SAVINGS, so what if you can turn $50,000 in 1 month. You’ll just spend it on x or y. If you haven’t learn how to SAVE, then you are doomed to fail in financial terms. Truth be known I would be a millionaire if I continued to earn $30,000/yr since I had the mindset of a Millionaire Mind. Even as a 7-grade kid living in San Francisco, I would run home and beat the bus to save 5
cents. And it was healthier. So what if it was a mile each day.

Now the biggest argument I hear about savings is “you only live once”. I want to have fun. Who knows if I will live that long? My counter is if you hold off for say 5 yrs, while you save you can enjoy the riches most already had and are still paying for and who says you don’t have fun with little? Who is more blessed, the spoiled rich child OR the humble poor one.

You know it is like a spoiled child. Give a 2-yr. old candy and soda whenever they want and they become a miserable spoiled child. It’s the same with us. The more you “parent the child within”, a wonderful thing one hopefully discovers. The true blessing of doing without! Of being humble in nature and blessed in gratitude. Please begin to parent your own selfish child within, then learn to invest, and I’m not talking the stock market. Okay, I’m bias toward real estate.

Les

_____________________________

Real estate investing is 95% emotional and 5% technical.
Work on the emotional if you want to get into real estate investing.

Original Post: http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=274015&mpage=1&p=&tmode=1&smode=1&key=

Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Les Gee and utilizing these teachings are solely at your discretion and risk.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Opps from the Sheriff Sale! Learning Lesson from Life!

Ok. I am at the Sheriff Sale in Philadelphia and my team has purchased our first property off the Fairmount Park area. It was a good bid with it not going to high. We are going for our 2nd bid when the auctioneer starts with, "Starting bid is $9500. Do I hear any more?"

I stand up and say, "$9,600".

Auctioneer: "Going once, twice, SOLD for $9,600!"

I was very happy until I saw that NO ONE bid against me. This was TOO EASY and coming from the auctions there is usually another person bidding for any good property. I started to feel a bit worried. After the auction I drove as fast my hot foot can get me to the property site. To my horror and laughter I saw this:


Learning Lesson from theSheriff Sale! Posted by Hello

A VACANT LOT!

What happened is we notated the wrong property on this street. We were going for a house that was several door steps away (which was postponed). Suffice to say this was a $1k learning experience! Life can be a hoot and I just laugh at my errors and learn from it! Cool Deal -> NEXT! *smile*

Saturday, March 19, 2005

1st Week in the Kings County Court Offices

This week moving to find out more about having power in my financial life. After reading a post on the Rich Dad community named "PLANE GIRL", I used her template to get to know the offices and get a feeling of the people as well as the information down there. Going down there was like any municipal area - full of busy and rushed people. After some hours of searching and asking questions I was able to:

* Find the lis pendens on not only KINGS but all of New York. The papers are only available for KINGS county though so the information is rather incomplete for the other boroughs.

* ACRIS and the NYC Property Taxes are online so I can find info that way also.

* Title examiners are nice but like the muncipal workers they are busy.

* Most city employees favorite word is "No!". I asked one if "Do you always say 'No'?" and they said "Yes". *smile*

* The employees are the key holders. Some keyholders are nicer than others.

* It is about creating relationships. Having sweets is a great way to make new friends. Met another investor that I can list my houses with now.

Overall it is a productive week for me as I am learning and creating more power in my life. I am still working on the County Clerk's office and learning. Next step is to find how to get a list of the Judgements of Foreclosure and Sales in the system.

Friday, March 11, 2005

The Art of Writing Goals are Useless, unless.... by Les Gee

This was bumped up from the RichDad forums. Good read!

(warning long post)
(*) this denotes one of my more important post

I felt that I studied the art of success with the numerous audiotapes and books and seminars, which I won't bore the reader with, but total over 100 titles. What I am about to write was only discovered after taking a 100 hours of a 200 hour experiential seminar designed with one purpose in mind. To learn about me. What makes me tick? What drives me?

For example, a simple first day first hour process would be to look at a fellow student in the class without any talking for 1 minute. Then for the next 30 minutes the class would share their thoughts. This was quite interesting what people think and how one feels about themselves.

During the middle of the seminar (it gets harder), my individual task was to break bread with a total stranger that was extremely difficult for me to ask. First I ask a homeless man, who turned me down. Then I ask a beautiful lady and she turned me down. Well with the time limit running out, I ended up talking with an elderly father and we had a good chat. Unfortunately, it was not a stretch to do that. But, we learned you can pick up a conversations with anyone in a foreign land and have a good time.

If you are interested in this sort of seminar, the one I took went bankrupt even thought it cost about $2000. I believe lifesprings or EST is the same sort of seminar and they are national. In Salt Lake City Utah, it is called mindsprings? I would say that seminar was tied for the best seminar, I’ve ever taken. The other seminar is iahp.org on child brain development a completely different subject. I have taken a bunch of seminars from “how to flirt” to “how to protect your assets.”

Well back to our story of goals.
===

Many books are written on goals. They are vital to a successful person, yet I learned goals are generally useless to the masses. Unfortunately most people write goals miss the point because they don’t understand how to make a good goal. Yeah, yeah, it must be concrete, it must be in writing, yadda yadda yadda. If you don’t do that, which is in almost all the financial books, your goals are doomed to fail. You don’t write I’m going to be a billionaire in 1 month and you only have $5 dollars to your name. I’m assuming the reader of this post is beyond the basics.

Analogy: Take a look at how many books are written on dieting. How many people can actually lose 50 pounds and keep it off? But if I wrote a goal to lose 1 pound a week and in 50 weeks I'll be 50 pounds lighter wouldn't that work? Isn't that an attainable goal? Only 1 pound a week! If I look at that day and night, won't it work? Well as a statistician that I am, I would say your probability of losing 50 pounds definitely increased versus someone who did not write it down and look at that written goal daily.
I can even make a case for all those that did write it down and those that didn’t and say incorrectly see this is all you have to do, to lose 50 pounds. But if I were a betting man, I’d vote against you achieving this goal if that were all you did. So the next question would be how could I lose 50 pounds in a year, if this is my ultimate goal? What must I do?

Precious formula which I finally discovered after hundreds of hours in seminars and books:

PURPOSE => VISION => GOALS align them all and goals are easy as 1,2,3.

It is like a pyramid. At the bottom is the most important, purpose statement. Next comes vision and at the top goals.

VISION: is closing you eyes. How do you see yourself one yr. from now? If you still see yourself overweight, then your subconscious mind is working against you. You are not aligned and you goal of losing weight is doomed to fail. Vision is more important than goals. If however you see yourself a thin person then you have a chance. It is funny that most people spend their time on goals, yet more time should be spent on your vision. In the seminar we practice closing our eyes and seeing what we would like. How did it feel to us? What were we doing? What is the setting in our quiet place. For me it is myself in my office overlooking the town lights below.

I really fun thing we did was the instructor, showed us the folly of goals. Okay your goal is to get across the room, but you can not get across like anyone prior. Yeah, you can sit and think about all the ways and boy is that a trivial pursuit. The whole purpose of this lesson. We just did it. One would walk, then hop, then crawl, then skip, then cartwheel, and 30 minutes later we were still going across, in twos, with chairs, would it never end. Goals are simple and little time should the reader spend on it. We need more things to do.

PURPOSE: Ah, the most important element in the whole thing. So you see yourself thin and you have a goal to lose 50 pounds, but may I ask, what for? What is your purpose in life? If it has nothing to do with being thin, come on! no way are you going to do all this? Maybe your purpose it to raise your son to be a fine young man and you are an obese 60 yr. widower and have an infant child. Your doctor tells you, you have to lose some weight, and your cholesterol is seriously high. Now, you got a strong burning passion or purpose in life. Now you have an even stronger vision of a healthy you raising your child and playing with him at 10 yrs and 20 yrs old. Now you can set goals and look at them everyday with a vision and purpose. Now you got a fighting chance to lose the weight and keep it off. Give me PASSION. Align your GOALS with your VISION and PURPOSE. Purpose is the key. Find yours and vision and goals are a walk in the park.

So how does this look in terms of real estate or financial success. Why is it you want to be successful? What burning desire do you have to call 100 houses? Is it an empty goal to be rich, and for what? So you can say to your friends look at me? Come on get a life! Work on your purpose, pray about it, think about it, spend more than 50% of your time discovering it. Once you have it you have the war won. If it helps to see yourself before the creator, talking about your life then so be it. If it’s the lifeboat exercise, were we had to explain to our fellow students why we should be allowed to live with only 1 seat remaining in our sinking titanic, then use it. By the way in that exercise, we were allowed 2 minute to talk. Note that no one had any convincing reason to live. Quite interesting, no one had any passion or direction. You mean to say not one of us, can talk for two minute on why we should be allowed to live with any passion. Oh, and this was not a fun experience as they had us stand there with dead time until the time was up. A shocking example of lack of passion and direction in ones life.

Now that you have a burning, driving passion in life, now that you can see, taste, touch, and feel the darn thing, work on your VISION. It should be easy from here.

Heck, now Goals are very easy. That must be align with your vision and purpose. It’s like an afterthought and goals WILL BE done next time this year. It’s truly is easy and startling to see those new years resolutions getting done because you have a purpose which drives you and a vision of what that looks and feels like.

Hope this helps. Since the 10 yrs that I discovered this, I personally have been a more Powerful individual. Powerful in the sense of the ability to help others, having more of an impact to those that I contact. And for you die-hard, thick-headed, money-hungry, greedy readers, oh and yes, my financial net worth skyrocketed beyond what I even imagined. It was not about the money, but as one great book wrote, “You can’t but help be rich, if you help enough people get to where they want to get.” Okay, I paraphrased it to death, and of course to those pessimistic folks, what about Mother Teresa?, she’s not rich!. My reply to those folks are she is rich, in another sort of way (:

Les.

http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=7663&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=&tmode=&smode=&s=#7663

Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Les Gee and utilizing these teachings are solely at your discretion and risk.

How I began in RE and what you can do today! by LesGee

Post by LesGee

X wrote:
-------------------------------
I am very interested in these products. Almost done with Rich Dad Poor Dad, and looking for more information on how to become aggressively involved with real estate. Also would like more info on what books or audio tapes will be beneficial in this area as well as smart investing. Will do whatever it takes to make it!!!!!!

les replies:
=======
how many times have i heard that before.

Will you pick up the telephone and call on ads on houses for sale? No, no say many beginneers, i don't know what to say? Tell me what to say? How about give me a break! Wing it until you get good at it. Nobody is going to hold your hand, no matter how many books you read.

Will you drive to a house if the seller sounds desperate and it sounds like a steal?
No, no say many beginners, I don't know anything about a house. Huh? Why not put a 14-day inspection clause in the contract, so you can hire people to look at it.

But I got no money? Yeah, yeah if you found a pot of gold at 30% discount, you can't sell it to a gold digger for 15% discount. Give me another "noise", that one is old.

Okay, I called, I looked, it's a steal, now will you sign a contract TODAY if you found a house for only $500,000 worth $700,000? No no say many newbies, I have to read more books. I never done this before. Huh? Stay with your day job.

Your mind is your greatest enemy.

=======
The post below and above is all you need to do it now. I just saved you thousand of dollars You don't need any books or seminar if you have half a brain.

Enjoy the reprint...
=========

HOW I BEGAN IN REAL ESTATE AND WHAT YOU CAN DO, by Les Gee


( someone sent me a personal email. I have delete the persons name and posted it on the board for all to learn.)

Ques: I know you are busy. I would ask for advice, but more so I am interested in where and how you acquired your knowledge...how you began to do what you do.

Answer: Long story 1990 was the year. I was driven, unlike 95% of the newbies. This is why some newbies consider me tough. Only 5% will actually do anything, and the rest are time wasters. They want to learn and learn and learn but do nothing, nothing, nothing. It is common knowledge in seminar circles that most attendees do knowing with the info. If I was charging hundreds of dollars, then my attitude would be please waste my time it’s your money.
SOMETHING IS NOT TRULY LEARNED UNLESS ACTED UPON.


When I started, my mentor had 2 other people working for him, and 3 others wanting to learn. I was the lowest on the totem pole, due to my age, shyness, and knowledge. I didn’t even know what an escrow was. 1 yr later I was the only one standing. All the rest were time wasters who long since left doing absolutely nothing. One was even a real estate broker already. I asked my mentor about that later. He said the difference was night and day between me and the others. Looking back I could see what he was talking about. Most people have too much psychological baggage. Let me ask you => DO YOU HAVE THE DRIVE?<= You need it since no one is going to kick your butt to do anything.


My personal plan was to start my own university of one teacher and one student, ME and ME!
It was a four yr plan. Heck, in college you don’t get paid for it, so money was not going to be in the plan for my university. It was all about learning and discoverying.

My Freshmen year, I read 20 hrs a week for a year, while hooking up with my mentor 2 hours roundtrip driving a day, and learned by being his personal assistant for zippo pay. He didn’t give me the time of day. Which worked out just fine as I learn to hustle for knowledge. Realize no one is going to hand you anything it must be win win.

It’s funny after 1 yr of reading, I packed up and found another mentor two states away, since I already surpassed this guys real estate knowledge long ago. This is the honest truth. One thing he had that others don’t is balls. That is much more important in this business than knowledge.
This is a big secret folks! You don’t have to be so smart as me. My first mentor was doing fine.

My mentor would buy for $50,000 all cash and sell for what he thinks would go for $70,000, while I use to sit there with my hp12c calculator and compute internal rates of return as a substitute for the real issue...sucking wind on my fears. But that was what I was taught in seminars. You have to analyze a deal. How to calculate yields, internal rates of return, etc. Now I understand why he won’t answer most of my questions, it was just noise in replace of fear. My mentor would just laugh. Later I noticed all he owned was a simple +-x/ calculator. Hmmmm, very interesting said my light bulb that first year. Here’s another saying, YOU DON’T STEAL IN SLOW MOTION.
I firmly believe Engineer types (like me) and Real estate Investors don’t mix well. It took me years to overcome my slow methodical style.

My next mentor had 100 students from around the country paying him $1000 for a phone expert on discounted mortgages. I was one of the 4 experts. Little ole me, only 1 yr in the business with 2 houses under my belt handed to me from my previous mentor. (of course I had to put up the money.) In this next gig that lasted two months at 20 hours per week on the phone constantly, I was never stumped with a GOOD answer! It was shocking to me that I knew all the CORRECT answers and by far was the best phone coach of the four, yet there were 2 real estate licensed brokers with 10+ yrs of experience. It dawned on me, I no longer needed mentors and hence moved on to better things. Been self-employed ever since.

I believe in the universal law of helping others. The end result, however, is the world will give back ten fold. However, it does not work if that is why you help. People are not stupid, they see a con if you are one. Work on your self and good things will happen.

A lot of people think you shouldn’t teach because you increase competition, blah, blah, blah. Heck, there is no competition! People can’t get past fear. Play cashflow 202 and try helping other players. It’s the same thing. People will be attracted to those with a gentle spirit, not a selfish attitude. In 11 years of doing loans, 100% of my business is from friends or referrals. I don’t have time for the general public, anyway they don’t know me from a hole in the wall.
Even now, us “rich guys” (yeah tell that to my wife, she’ll just laugh) are in need of money from time to time. It sure would help to have a team as opposed to be a solo player.

Even though both mentors didn’t teach me much personally, they did provide me with a vehicle to learn. It was because I was so driven to learn that I absorbed it like a sponge. And contrary to their lack of time with me, I think kindly and thoughtfully about both men. I really didn’t need them, besides to eliminate my fears. I paid for that cowardness as a mini-slave.

BTW (by the way) my goal for my sophomore year was 10 yrs per week reading. My junior year was whatever I wanted to read, but I graduated from my own university 2 yrs early.

Ques: Is the game (cashflow 101) something that I should invest in? Are there good books? Or
is just going out and doing a deal the best way to learn?


Answer: Cashflow is the best one item to do. Better than any one book I found for teaching financial intelligence. It helped me think about general strategies and also when watching others how pitiful and idiotic some thinking is. Hence, it warns me not to do that. I find that (95%) most players aren’t very good, so keep practicing. And practice with different tactics. One being buy all cash, buy big deals only, buy with partners, buy alone, etc…. Play at least 50 times, then go on to cashflow 202. Play by yourself or with others. But if you must read a book here are some gems.

Books wise: Richest Man in Babylon, this is my financial bible.
Think Like a Tycoon, by Bill Greene was is my favorite Real estate Book. Out of print.
How to Build a Real Estate Money machine, by Wade Cook was my first mentors recommendation.
Private Money Financing, by Carlos Royal, Out of Print.
How To buy at least 20% Below Market, by John Reed is a good basic analysis of 30 techniques. It will help give you an idea of which way to go or it may confuse you into giving you too many choices.
Nothing Down, By Robert Allen is good.
Multiple Steams of Income by Allen is also very good.
How I turned $1000 into five Million in Real Estate, by Nickerson is considered the grand father of creative real estate.

Note all books have value. Go to the library and start reading. In one year, you can read a bunch. This is like learning Spanish. The more you read the better you get at it HOWEVER,
by far the best way to learn is by

============================== MAKING PHONE CALLS =============

consistently to potential house sellers. I have seen more change over a short time with newbies that talk on the phone to live bullets then the Engineer type (me) reading or attending seminars. For my first mentor I was his personally answering services. Got to answer calls on people wanting money, people wanting to sell their house, and people looking to place money. Here are some simple ads in the paper he placed.

I buy house fast xxx-xxxx AND Bad credit give me a call xxx-xxxx

Investors wanted to earn high rates on houses xxx-xxxx

Reading helps, seminar helps, but there is no substitute for a real live game of phone calls.
If you just read, big deal, you are like the masses. If you make phone calls, now you are really learning. What if you found a seller that has a live one. You will be sweating when you hang up.
Your mind will be working. You’ll wonder seriously what to do.

This is how you do it! Are you guys listening? Is anyone home? Do I have to preface with pay me $10,000 and I will give it to you? Or can I just give it to you and hope 1% of you will help those buyers out there. Will maybe I should bracket the big secret.



=> ACTION ITEM TO DO TODAY IF YOU GOT BALLS AND REALLY WANT TO MAKE MONEY IN REAL ESTATE.
=> Every week your goal should be to call at least 10 For Sale By Owners, Or rentals trying to => buy a house profitably. Look at 2 of the 10 best. Make an offer on 1 after the first month.

If you can do that for 1 yr, you would have talked to 500 people, seen 100 homes, made 50 offers.

I ask you who would be smarter and closer to their financial dreams.

=>You today -VS- you in one year having done that? <=

Sink that in your mind, because that is what I use to think when I started and made those first calls and could be found in a suit in a downtown San Francisco skyscraper, negotiating on a multi-million dollar deals in my FIRST month. One week earlier I had to force myself to call an ad.

If you need to find a mentor, we are all cheap. Buy us lunch. The mentors that will charge an arm and an leg, forget them, they are in it for the money. Have you conscious be your guide. We all have it within us, if we will only listen.

Lastly, real estate is not that hard. You don’t need to understand everything. I surely have holes in my real estate knowledge. We all make mistakes. It thoses that have the drive that will ultimately succeed. If you find a question that stops you from moving forward, it is probably just NOISE, that overcame your lack of drive.

A real estate developer remembered the time he built his first house. He said he did everything wrong in the beginning. He had ordered all the parts and there where sitting at the site. His dad came by and said son, what do you have to do first? Oh, start the foundation and off he went.
He looked at the whole job, he would still be sitting there in a daze.

In real estate, what’s the first thing YOU have to do? Here’s one path there are many.
1) Read books for 6 months. (optional)
2) Make 10 phone calls a week (highly recommended, you are building your real estate brain muscle)
3) Look at 2 houses per week (will come on you have to look at houses)
4) Make 1 offer (hey, you could look at 1000000 houses, but no offers gives no money.)
5) Oops he accepted, now what? (inevitable if you make offers)
6) Find money. Hey guys I found a $100,000 house for $70,000 who wants it for $80,000.
7) Get it in contract
8) Close escrow
9) Collect money
10) Go back to number 2.

Les.

Ps. Share your success and failures with the group.

http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=181053&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=&tmode=&smode=&s=#181053

Disclaimer: These are the opinions of Les Gee and utilizing these teachings are solely at your discretion and risk.

Thursday, March 10, 2005

What is Rich, What is Wealthy, and What is the Success Factor?

Someone asked me what is the definition of rich, what is wealthy, and what are the traits of being successful?

RICH -
1. Possessing great material wealth: “Now that he was rich he was not thought ignorant any more, but simply eccentric” (Mavis Gallant).
2. Having great worth or value: a rich harvest of grain.
3. Magnificent; sumptuous: a rich brocade.
4.
1. Having an abundant supply: rich in ideas.
2. Abounding, especially in natural resources: rich land.
5. Meaningful and significant: “a rich sense of the transaction between writer and reader” (William Zinsser).
6. Very productive and therefore financially profitable: rich seams of coal.
7.
1. Containing a large amount of choice ingredients, such as butter, sugar, or eggs, and therefore unusually heavy or sweet: a rich dessert.
2. Having or exuding a strong or pungent aroma: “Texas air is so rich you can nourish off it like it was food” (Edna Ferber).
8.
1. Pleasantly full and mellow: a rich tenor voice.
2. Warm and strong in color: a rich brown velvet.
9. Containing a large proportion of fuel to air: a rich gas mixture.
10. Informal. Highly amusing.

Wealthy -
1. Having wealth; rich.
2. Marked by abundance: a wealthy land.
3. Well supplied: wealthy in compassion.

Successful -
1. Having a favorable outcome: a successful heart transplant.
2. Having obtained something desired or intended: was successful in stopping the leak of oil.
3. Having achieved wealth or eminence: a successful architect.


Here are 2 cool discussion on it:

DEFINITION OF RICH
http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=390508&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=success%2Cfactors&tmode=&smode=&s=

SUCCESS FACTORS
http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=372858&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=success%2Cfactors&tmode=&smode=&s=

My Take is...
I believe that one can be successful in one area and not the other. For me I believe in a holistic view of success. If I am great in business but have horrible health then it doesn't do it for me. This is one of the other reasons why I encourage others to take life trainings like Harmony / The Great Life Foundation.

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Want Inspiration? Talk to Michael 1212

I received a email on Wednesday March 2, 2005:

I would like to meet with your group if you did not mind. I am in Detroit and would be willing to drive out to NYC. I have never played the board game(or been to NYC). I read you are looking for people who realy understand the game, I do not . I would not want to hold the group up, maybee I could just sit in on the game. It would be worth the trip to me just to be around like minded people. I could make it as early as this friday if that is OK.


Michael 1212

I contacted him quickly as I shared with him the value of time and if he may want to contact other cashflow groups closer. After all of my suggestions, he said he wanted to come to NYC.

WOW!

I met Michael late afternoon on Friday to get to know him and show him a bit around Times Square. He was impressed by the energy of the city and the cleaniness (I still feel NYC is dirty though). My first impression is he is an unassuming guy with great positive energy. I enjoy talking with people that shine that. It gets me going!

After walking through the area, we moved to meet up with the CF101 Cashflow Group in NYC. The game started around 6:30PM in which it grew to over 30 people. Many people learned new things. I finally met Reverendro and his wife and also GuardianX. Reverendro had an great time as he wrote here -> [click here]. During this time Michael was playing CF101 and he looked like he was enjoying it.

After the game, we spoke a bit and Michael and went out with 2 other cashflowers. It was great hearing from Michael about his story and how he is primed in creating a beautiful powerful life. He has taken many steps and is not discouraged to make it happen. We spoke about his various ventures in business and using real estate as a vehicle to financial freedom. It was a good time as he also stayed in a oversized closet in the Habitat Hotel. There wasn't even room for a restroom!

All in all I am inspired by Michael as he saw the vision in his life and is creating it. Most others are not this enrolled in their visions and are hungry for their dreams. He affirmed that the power that I have to attract those who are powerful and like minded. He just came to play cashflow one night and then went home the next morning - talk about inspiring!

Thank you once again Michael, Reverendro, and GuardianX to take on your lives! You honor me!

PS You can read Michael1212's post -> [click here]

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Harmony Trainings LIFTOFF !!!!! - Weekend 4

Wow... it is about a week since my last day of training in Harmony (now called The Great Life Foundation). It seems like a year since then but at the same time it feels like I haven't really left at all.

This weekend was an affirmation of all the things I have learned for the past few months:

* I am worthy of success. Simple thing to say and it took me some processes to be aware that yes I am worthy of this life.
* Acceptance of myself as a human being with my strengths and weaknesses.
* I am not a failure when I fail. Failure is when I quit moving and learning in life. I keep on moving to success and making mistakes and failing are part of the learning process.
* I am loved. I have been told many times by people and felt the love of God at times. It was amazing feeling it from people who I just knew a few weeks. I saw people change from half fearful shells to giving, powerful, loving, amazing persons. It is inspirational. Most of all I am loved by myself. This is one of the greatest knowings of all. I ask myself "what is the most loving thing I can do right now?".
* I am responsible / accountable. Things in life happen. I am responsible for how I feel and think about them and even to an extent created the circumstances that I going through.
* I am a creator. I am made in the image of God the Creator so I am creating things in life from my emotions to my outward surroundings. I CHOOSE on how it looks and CHOOSE on how to appear in life.

In this weekend, I created something special. The limits were what I imposed on it and no one else. I created LOVE for people who were ailing and sick. I created flowers and gifts to share the love and acceptance I had for them and it brought tremendous energy for the people as they saw my smiling compassionate face. It was a true blessing.

To top off the whole weekend our Celebration was great! The theme was the 50's as I dressed up in a clean white shirt with rolled up dark blue jeans and Sketchers black cap toe shoes with white socks! To top it all off I had my hair slicked back for that hot look!

It was GREAT! One of my buddies did a firedance that took my breathe away! He breathed fire and laid the fire blade on his feet. It was simply awesome!

For myself I performed the song Arms of Love by Craig Musseau as I haven't performed this Christian worship song for 5 years in public. It was great to perform with my heart!

Overall it is bittersweet and MY TRAINING HAS JUST BEGUN!

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Do I Need a Mentor?

Great Article from DealMakers:

http://www.dealmakerscafe.com/Articles/New-Investor/Seeking-a-mentor-in-Oregon

Bottom line is who would care more about your success? Your mentor or you? From Harmony I realize that I have the power to create my world. Would it serve me to have assistance? Yes and for the most part I became my own mentor as I cared about my success more than anyone I have met. Do I say don't look for a mentor? No, just be aware that if you don't have one as of yet then continue to move and grow yourself. As Ray Como (real estate investor) says, "when the student is ready then the teacher will appear!".

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Bob's Painful Foreclosure

These last few months I have been visiting the Sheriff Sales in PA for properties up for foreclosure. It has been alot of work as I would get the list, look at the areas, determine which properties are worth the effort, drive to the property, and speak with the homeowners while looking at the condition of the property. It takes time but I like talking with people and seeing the actual properties.

This past month I visited one house located in the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia in which the property was a 3br / 1ba. My partner and I approached the house and found the door was unlocked. Looking for the owner was not too hard as he came later. He was a guy named Bobby (not his real name) in his early 20s and I asked if he knew there is a sale on his house this month. He mentioned he knew as someone just told him.

We sit down and spoke with him and found out that his grandma owned the property and the taxes were not paid for years. It was owed 20K in total liens and there was damage on the side in which the frame wall was open and water was going down from the 2nd floor all the way to the 1st.

It was a slim deal as we had only 2 business days to work and the title of the house was still in his grandma's name. His relatives didn't care about the house and it hasn't gone through probate. After some discussion, I let him know it is a slim chance that I can do something about it but I will do what I can.

Getting back to home and doing research on it I found:

2br/1ba in strong blue collar area
Total Liens: 20K
Repairs: 15-25K (property had electricity, gas, water good; toilet was broken; about 8x8 ft of wall required repairs as water was seeping into the house; comestic work including new rugs and paint).
ARV: 80K

The main issue about the house was that it did not go through probate so the estate of the grandma was not settled. I called a few attorneys and most required at least 1.5K as a retainer.

Afterwards we would want to file bankrupcty 13 to stop the sale of the property or at least negotiate with the plantiff's attorney.

The amount of work with the little time didn't make sense for me to proceed as Bobby didn't get back to us on time. We found out that even if he did the liens was not the only issue but if he was named executor of the estate then he would be required to settle all outstanding debts. He didn't have the mindset to do so at this time.

I went to the auction and the property finally sold for 45K ish. It was incredible how many people wanted to bid high on this. It was a slim margin for net profit.

After the auction, I drove to see Bobby.

He was hunched in the backyard with his friends as called him. He was dejected as he came to me and he said, "I tried calling you but I couldn't get through to you." He murmured that a few more times as I told him that his house was sold. He was looking straight away from me and moving restless as he didn't know what to say. He kept murmuring he called me earlier.

I told him that the house sold and that he has about 1-2 months to move his things. I hoped for the best as he told me he can stay with his friends. It was very sad to see the hurt in his eyes. It was really tough to see that as he lived in that home since he was a baby. Right now because it went to foreclosure he left with NOTHING.

Working in preforeclosures provides the homeowner a solution that they can walk away with dignity and move forward into a new beginning.